Implementation Grant: Enhancing Diversity in the Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Population Through Curricular Change

约翰霍普金斯大学将领导一个工程学院联盟，改变机械工程的核心课程，使工程对一个多元化的社区更具吸引力。压倒一切的目标是重建本科工程课程，使工程学能够吸引和留住更多、更多样化的人群，同时保持或提高其基本技能和知识的标准。其假设是，如果课程具备以下条件，工程学将吸引并留住更多样化的学生：基础知识和应用程序之间、技术和非技术主题之间有更大的联系、更多的团队体验、更短的关键路径长度、更多地关注工程学对人类体验的影响，以及包容而不是排他性的总体氛围。所有合作机构都承诺开办试点课程并参与改革进程。该项目有8个合作学术机构：洛杉矶加州州立大学、华盛顿大学、密歇根州立大学、塔斯基吉大学、霍华德大学、史密斯学院、史蒂文斯理工学院和约翰·霍普金斯大学。所有这些学校在教育研究和创新方面都有重要的历史，都致力于参与整个项目，包括试验新的模块和课程。这个项目的重点是过程，即创建一个严格的课程修订过程，使课程对不同的社区更具吸引力。这一过程涉及以下步骤：创建一个目前包括在机械工程课程中的专题的综合数据库(已在顺利进行中)；审查专题清单，以删除不再相关的材料，并增加未来需要的材料；将每个专题与理解的先决条件、适用的应用和可以链接的非技术材料联系起来；根据数据库和所述的将关键路径长度降至最低的目标建立课程图，跨技术专题和跨技术和非技术专题进行整合，更多地关注应用和工程的社会必要性，引入更多的合作经验，并过渡到一个更具包容性的环境；试行新课程或课程模块，以检验新课程将吸引和留住更多样化的学生群体的假设。这将伴随着严格的评估和评价。

Johns Hopkins University will lead a consortium of engineering schools to change the core mechanical engineering curriculum to make engineering more attractive to a diverse community. The overriding goal is to reconstruct undergraduate engineering curricula so that engineering is able to attract and retain a larger, more diverse population while maintaining or enhancing its standards for essential skills and knowledge. The hypothesis is that engineering will attract and retain a more diverse set of students if the curriculum has: greater linkages between the fundamentals and applications and between technical and nontechnical topics, more teaming experiences, shorter critical path lengths, more focus on the impact of engineering on the human experience, and a general atmosphere of inclusivity rather than exclusivity. All of the partnering institutions have committed to running the pilot curriculum and to participating in the reform process. There are 8 partnering academic institutions in this project: California State University at Los Angeles, The University of Washington, Michigan State University, Tuskegee University, Howard University, Smith College, Stevens Institute of Technology, and Johns Hopkins University. All of these schools have a significant history of educational research and innovation, and all are committed to participating in the entire project, including piloting new modules and courses. The focus in this project is on process, i.e. on creating a rigorous process for curriculum revision that makes programs more attractive to a diverse community. The process involves the following steps: creating a comprehensive database of topics currently included in mechanical engineering curricula (already well under way); reviewing the topic list to eliminate material no longer relevant and adding material which is needed in the future; associating with each topic the prerequisites for understanding, the applications to which it applies, and nontechnical material which could be linked; building a curriculum map from the database and stated objectives of minimizing critical path length, integrating across technical topics and across technical and nontechnical topics, introducing more focus on applications and the social imperatives for engineering, introducing more teaming experiences, and transitioning to a more inclusive environment; piloting of new courses or course modules to test the hypothesis that the new curriculum will attract and retain a more diverse community of students. This will be accompanied by rigorous assessment and evaluation.